Daryl Jones would like your vote, but be sure to vote at Bird Land either way.
- Brett Wallace went 2-for-4 with a HR. Koo Koo Ka Choo.
- Steve Hill went 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Tyler Greene went 0-for-3 with and was HBP.
- Adam Ottavino needed another solid outing under his belt, and he went out and pitched quite well. He went 4 innings, allowed 5 hits and a walk and struck out 6.
- Tyler Norrick allowed a run on a pair of hits and a walk over two innings. He struck out four.
- Arnoldi Cruz went 1-for-3 with a walk. Playing 1B, he was charged with 2 errors; one throwing and one for a missed catch.
- James Rapoport went 0-for-3 with a walk. He also was charged with a fielding error.
- Amaury Marti went 0-for-4, just so the quiet the rumors out there that he’s not human.
Entries (RSS)
Brett Wallace might be our best bet to hit behind Albert.
sorry, I meant option not bet. He might be our best option to hit behind Albert
I did my part to help out mister jones.
Heres to Ottovino taking a page out of Jones’ book and putting together a breakout year this upcoming season, i hope.
Wallace isn’t going to be ready at the beginning of next year, but if Glaus goes down then I want him to be the first called up. Also, due to his great summer and fall I think the cards might want to look into trading Freese, for maybe a young 2b, ss, or pitcher.
I can appreciate that Jones probably is underrated these days, but have to point out that lobbying directed from other sites has been the bane of a similar community-based initiative over on John Sickel’s site for 3 years now. We try to come up with a list that reflects the beliefs and arguments of what is a fairly stable user group there throughout the year – the ranking may not be “right”, but it’s an accurate barometer of our own group’s feelings, and (hopefully) has some value to others. The breakdown happens when a bunch of people who are not part of that mix get directed there by “vote for xxx” posted on their site, and suddenly we have placements that really aren’t a reflection of the group.
I’d encourage people to consider this before trying to direct a wave of Jones supporters over another group’s site to overwhelm the vote. This, of course, is much different from directing people over simply to vote for whoever they think is best.
Siddfynch, I agree completely, while most of us are avid Bird Land readers I don’t think we should be sheep flocking to the altar of Jones either. I don’t think Jones has reached his spot in the rankings yet and thus I haven’t voted for him yet. There are reasons why they have a vote, since not everyone agrees with you.
Sidd and Hugo—I’m surprised he’s gone this far, but I guess I thought there were more Darylites out there. You guys both make great points and now I feel like a bum. I’ll have an apology to make to DG.
You’re not a bum, Erik. Keep up the crusade. Like you, I’m surprised that people see Anderson and Freese as better prospects than Jones. While I can understand Anderson (maybe the power will come), I really don’t understand Freese. The biggest issue I have with this is that Freese will turn 26 in April. Jones will turn 22 in June.
Freese may be able to step in an be an average 3B right now, but is that really worth that much? Maybe the Dodgers think so (w/ the Casey Blake for Carlos Santana trade), but I do not. By the time Jones is 26, he could be an All-Star (or at least a very good OF – like Randy Winn but w/ a higher OBP).
Since his breakout, I’ve thought that Jones was undervalued by outside sources, but now I think he’s undervalued by almost everyone. If you follow other rankings at all, you’ve definitely heard of Austin Jackson (NYY). Last year in AA, Jackson had an OPS of .773. Jones had an OPS of .909. Yes, it was a MUCH smaller sample (95 games smaller) and Jackson supposedly plays a great CF while Jones plays a meh LF or RF – but still… Jones may not be a 5 tool player (although, like Anderson, more power may come), but his skill set and OBP skills have me very excited.
I don’t understand Freese either, but I think it was a factor of how the poll is being done, which is the comment I made to DG on his latest entry for spots 6 and 7. I think enough people voted for Motte, or Jones or whoever for 3 and 4 that they never thought of voting for those people for 5. I mean why vote for Jones for 3 4 and 5? My personal top 10 would probably be:
Rasmus, Wallace, Perez, Motte, Anderson, Todd, Jones, Mortensen, Lynn, Freese with Jay, Kozma, Niko, Garcia, etc. coming very close.
That was off the top of my head so it may have some moving around but it is close.
Hi Erik,
I wouldn’t have posted that if I’d realized it would make you feel like a bum – I should have emailed you, sorry. I doubt this could be nearly as disruptive as on Sickels’s site – 80 million fans of team X logging in to place a C-grade prospect in the Top 60.
Keep up the great work!
I could see Anderson being voted above Jones, because of positional scarcity, but I am very surprised Freese was voted ahead of him. I guess it just depends upon your definition of “prospect.” Jones has a lot of talent and room to grow, but Freese is a finished product waiting for a shot that will probably hit 25 hrs in the big leagues when that shot comes. Jones also only has one year of good results working for him, although the results were very good.
I voted for Jones at 6.
Personally I agree that Jones is the better prospect, but I would warn against undervaluing Freese. A league-average offensive and defensive third baseman available for the league minimum is a valuable commodity.
I’m thinking the readers of Birdland are a little less educated than the readers of this blog. Not to say there aren’t educated voters on Derrick’s site, it’s just that people here have sought out knowledge on Cardinals prospects. The link from stltoday provides easy access to even your most casual fans. Perhaps these fans have just heard more of Anderson or actually seen Motte.
My vote:
Rasmus
Wallace
Perez
Jones
The biggest issue with Jones is that he did nothing last year. I don’t take single year numbers into account, we did that last year and ranked a few players higher then we should have (Jose Martinez and Hoffpauir) and look where that landed us this year. Jones has a high ceiling and had a great year but does that automatically make him better then a catcher that has been a good hitter his entire career, developing power and defense at each level and is the youngest player we have in AAA? I really don’t see it.
Hugo – I assume you are taking about ’07 w/ Jones and you’re right, the numbers aren’t pretty. However, this wasn’t a guy coming out of nowhere, he was 3rd round pick. The tools were alway there (including great OBP skills) but this was the first year they translated to results – hopefully it’s real, similar to Joe Mather’s breakout in 2007.
Hugo, I hope DG reads your post. I was the one (or one of the ones) that e-mailed him trying to explain how doing multiple rankings simultaneously can easily lead to inaccurate selections. He seems to acknowledge that it is possible but doesn’t seem overly concerned about it.
He did read my post, acknowledge it and is doing a runoff for the 7th slot. Motte won 6 in a landslide but Todd and Jones basically tied for 7th and he is going on this being a factor so he is having a Todd vs Jones vote for 7th.
I do know that Jones didn’t come out of nowhere, but he was on all of ONE prospect list last year and that was Az’s, he wasn’t on the big lists nor any of the other ones. Was 2007 that bad that he completely fell off? If so is 2008 enough to correct it? Or was 2007 an overreaction? Is the same true of 2008? Did the guy really go from Top 10 to sub 30 to Top 5? I just don’t buy it.
Sorry I was MIA for so long. No one feel bad, when I said I feel like a bum it was a bit of an exaggeration. I see your guys point though, and it’s valid. DG actually didn’t see a problem with it.
I was going to wait to unleash are prospect rankings before we do a reader top 20, but I’m tempted to let you intelligent readers go first. What do y’all think?
2007 was bad for Jones (2005 and 2006 weren’t too great either, to be honest), but I think 2008 looks more like development than an aberration. If he would have stayed in QC and put up these numbers I’d agree w/ you, but Jones was pushed aggressively through the system. His OPS was actually higher at Springfield than at PB (small sample, but it’s all we have).
As far as where Jones ranked 2 years ago or last year, I think that speaks to how arbitrary an exercise these rankings can be for young players in the low minors. Projection is a tricky thing, if it wasn’t there would be no need for scouts.
For all of the Card Nerds out there that are thinking Jones is a one year wonder. Jones had bad vision until he had the laser eye surgery. This year he saw the ball better than he has his entire young 22 year old life. I’m sure he could hold his own in the show like Barton did. The difference between playing in the minors and the big leagues for a lot of young players is OPPURTUNITY
It might be interesting to do reader lists before your expert opinions show us the light!
While I do like the idea of reader lists first I did like having the “expert” opinions to fall back on as reference. In my mind I may try to think of the top 10 prospects and completely forget about someone like PJ, Mort, Lynn, etc. that had good years or are showing promise but that don’t cause as large of headlines. In the end both ways have pluses and minuses.
And if DG doesn’t have a problem then go for it and keep campaigning. It is his blog so ignore us and listen to him.